Reading A River: Finding The Paystreaks—Part II

How to read a river to find gold. In this second of a two-part series, we will take a look at how a river’s grade affects the formation of paystreaks, and how to go about reading a river to see the various catches and parts of a stream where the force slows down and gold starts to accumulate.

Ask The Experts—Where to Take Sulfide Ore for Processing

Q: I have a high grade silver-copper vein. In my area of NE Washington, hundreds of these veins were mined and shipped ore years ago. The vein is not a problem to mine, the problem is whom do I sell the sulfide ore to these days?...

Ask The Experts—Where Would The Most Gold Tend To Be In This Deposit?

Q: I live in SW Oregon, Gold Beach... I am getting small gold from this paleoplacer. Where would the most gold tend to be, in the sediment holding the pebbles together or in certain...rocks such as quartz breccia in the conglomerate?

The St. Louis Gold District

In 1848 and 1849, miners had pushed all through the western Sierra foothills making many fantastic gold discoveries. The far north end of California’s Mother Lode country, however, had received little exploration.

Ask The Experts—What Should I Do Next With This Quartz Vein?

I don’t know what to do next. Should I get an assay of the quartz? Can you recommend someone? Should I somehow crush the rock & search for a gold vein? Am I just wasting my time?

Prospecting for Commercial-Scale Gold Deposits

While most individual prospectors out there are searching for placer gold, there is a different type of prospecting being done by a handful of individuals—the search for commercially viable large-scale gold and silver deposits.

Detecting Invisible Gold

How to find gold with a metal detector: The technology certainly has improved quite a bit over the years, so when these owners are testing various types of gold on their machines and they find that some gold responds poorly or not at all, it can come as an unpleasant surprise.

Allied Nevada Reactivates Hycroft Mine

Because the gold here is not coarse enough to be recovered in a pan, the deposit was not recognized as holding any significant potential for precious metals until 1908...

How to Utilize Assays and Evaluate Results

Ask the lab manager how your ores will be tested, and ask to see the equipment that will be used. If you are told it’s a secret that can’t be explained, you need another assayer.

How to Complete Assessment Work and Claim Maintenance

To put yourself in the best position you need to be doing all your assessment work properly and filing the necessary paperwork in a timely manner. Most prospectors don’t know a lot about the details of doing assessment work...

Finding Gold With Copper and Turquoise

The signs of copper, which the prospector most commonly sees in the field in outcrops and on the surface, are secondary minerals caused by the action of air and water on the original copper-bearing sulfides that were deposited deep in the earth.

The Tonopah Gold and Silver District

The discovery of the Tonopah District by Jim Butler in May, 1900, was by far the most important event of its time, just as the discovery of the Comstock was the most important event in the Nevada’s earlier history.

Dredging Alternative: High Banking

The hope was that a bit of the gold from that famous old pocket mine had worked its way down the slope of the hill and into the gravels Pat and his crew were planning to mine.

Molycorp Minerals Reopens Mountain Pass Mine

During the great uranium rush of the late 1940s, thousands of prospectors spread out all over the western United States sampling rock outcrops for traces of radioactivity.

New Study of the Formation of Nuggets—Part II

Last month we took a look at the origins of coarse gold nuggets and the results of some new science about how they form. This new information pointed out that many nuggets once thought to be of secondary origin are formed under hot conditions deep in the earth.

Let’s Go Crevicing for Gold

People have been looking for gold in every manner possible since the big gold boom in 1849, so what chance do we have of getting anything in today’s world where literally thousands of prospectors and fortune seekers have been before us? Almost every river in California is gold-bearing and has been thoroughly explored, but as I can attest to, nobody ever gets all the gold.

Gold Deposits of North Carolina

North Carolina was the site of the first well documented discovery of gold in the United States, which occurred in 1799. Not many years later, when the importance of this find was realized, gold miners came to seek their fortunes.

How to Get Started as a Gold Prospector

The surging price of gold is attracting a whole new generation of prospectors who are looking to find a bit of natural gold out in the hills. It’s certainly a lot different than it was six or eight years ago when gold was stuck below $300 per ounce. There is no question that we are seeing a new outbreak of gold fever and it seems to be a growing into an epidemic.

Conducting Research To Find New Gold Deposits

...this time of year the days are short, the temperatures cold and the weather reliably poor. That’s why the middle of winter is the best time for me to be doing research to find new gold deposits and places to explore after the weather warms and the snow melts.

The Carson City Mint

In the early 1860s, the rich mines of Virginia City and the surrounding area were pouring forth millions of dollars in gold and silver each year. Additional mines located at White Pine, Aurora, Humboldt and other Nevada locations were also yielding millions in gold and silver.

Assembling A First Class Mining Property

In the old days, each miner staked his claim, and in lode prospecting, the end result was often that one mining company grew up out of each of those individual claims and several different mining companies would often be working on one individual vein or geologic structure...

Ask the Experts—Why doesn't the 1872 Mining Law apply to all 50 states?

Q: In the Feb 2008 Mining Journal you ran an article, “Gold Deposits of North Carolina,” by Chris Ralph. The article states that the 1872 Mining Law does not apply in North Carolina and in fact only has merit in 19 of the 50 states. Can you explain how that could happen?

Understanding Geologic Deposit Models

Geologists have long noted the similarities of certain types of mineral deposits all across the globe. Similar minerals, similar country rocks, and similar grades of mineralization may occur in several different parts of the world.

Choosing The Right Detector Coil

Every machine has its own adjustments and settings, but one of the most important ways to increase the capabilities of whatever detector you own is through the use of accessory coils.

Gold Deposits of Georgia

The first actual discovery of gold made on the lands of what is now the State of Georgia is shrouded in the mist of history.

Natural Crystalline Gold

The beauty of natural gold is widely appreciated by both prospectors and mineral collectors, but the pinnacle of beautiful natural gold specimens are the spectacular crystalline formations.

Tools of the Modern Prospector: The GPS

GPS provides the prospector a precise way of knowing just where something (like a mine) is located. There are many thousands of lost mine stories—some real, and some made up. The use of a GPS could well have made the difference to accurately record their location.

Building A Mine—Dust Devil Sunstones

Establishing a gemstone mine, like any other mining operation, is a difficult proposition. This is especially true if you are starting out from scratch without loads of money to get the business going.

John Fremont and the Gold Mines of Las Mariposas

John Frémont was a man whose luck regularly swung from one extreme to another. At times he seemed to be the luckiest man on earth, yet he sometimes made bad decisions that got him into a considerable amount of trouble.

Ask The Experts—How do I work this large quartz vein?

Q: I found a large quartz vein. I’m interested in mining this myself. Can you point me to a good book or other source on lode mining?

Cashing In Your Gold: Working With A Refiner

Many miners who have hoarded their gold for years are now tempted by higher prices. Several friends with multiple pound nugget collections have sold them recently for cash.

Gold Deposits Of South Carolina

Gold was first discovered in South Carolina in 1827 in placer deposits near the Haile Mine, which later became the largest gold producer in the southeastern states. The Carolina belt is the most extensive and most productive of the southern Appalachian gold belts. It lies parallel to the axis of the Appalachian folding but is far to the east of the higher ranges.

Finding Paystreak Gold With A Metal Detector

There is no question metal detectors can be used to find paystreaks, but the method I am going to describe may not be exactly the procedure some prospectors would expect.

The Trail of ‘98

On June 16, 1897, the steamer Excelsior cruised into San Francisco Bay, completing its long voyage from Alaska. While a ship arriving from the far north was not a particularly unusual event, this one heralded news of something truly big.

Beyond The End of The Road

Dale's research of known gold producing districts in southern California and his knowledge of metal detecting produced these large gold-quartz specimens. This certainly would make any trip a very good one, but it turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg.

Bullion River's French Gulch Gold Mine

Bullion River’s high-grade gold mine at French Gulch, near Redding, California, may be in some ways the last of the Mohicans, or perhaps it is the first of the great revival, but for the near term it is probably destined to be a little bit of both.

Reading A River: Finding The Paystreaks—Part I

How to read a river to find gold: The exact point where you choose to dig for gold makes a big difference because the placer gold deposits formed in rivers and streams are anything but uniform—some parts are rich in gold, but most parts are very poor.

The Basics of Small-Scale Heap Leaching with Cyanide Part I—History, Suitablility and Permitting

Hardrock mining is usually done on a large scale, and although a few small-scale hardrock operations still exist, it’s not an easy operation to start up and run profitably.

The Basics of Small-Scale Heap Leaching with Cyanide

In last month’s article I talked a bit about opportunities for heap leaching small hardrock deposits. This month I’m going to talk about the basics of putting together a heap leach project, including building the pad and leaching the ore.

Locating a New Nugget Patch

Finding a new spot that is rich in gold, but has not already been exploited by other metal detector operators, is a goal of many prospectors. Sometimes it takes a lot of looking and research to find such a place because a lot of prospectors are out there searching and it just isn’t easy.

Prospecting for Hardrock Platinum, Nickel & Copper Deposits

Recent sharp price increases for copper, nickel and platinum group metals (PGMs) have greatly stimulated exploration for these metals, and individual prospectors have made important discoveries of new deposits.

New Study on the Formation of Nuggets—Part I

Geologists have long realized that the vast majority of gold in typical quartz veins is in the tiny, dust-size range, a lot smaller than the gold nuggets found by placer miners. This is common worldwide in many, many gold districts. Certainly there are some quartz veins with coarse gold, but the vast majority of gold in the larger veins is quite small.

Small-Scale Mining with a Dozer and Detectors

Even the best of metal detectors are only capable of seeing a certain distance down into the sand, gravel and rock of a placer deposit. Once all the gold that can be reasonably seen by a metal detector has been harvested, it can be difficult to find more nuggets as the remaining gold is often buried too deep for the available detecting technology to locate.